November 15, 2024

Anne Burrell out • Harry Potter baked • Survivor sh!tshow • Bizarre Foods • murder houses

Dear newsletter friends,

Happy Friday! There’s a cool breeze and blue sky here in Central Florida, and nice that fall has finally arrived. 🍂 In November. 😆

Oh, and speaking of blue skies, Bluesky is really taking off this week—and I love that for it, because it's truly the best Twitter replacement, with so many great features and easy ways to curate your feed. Join me there!

As I first reported in this newsletter a few weeks ago, Life Below Zero has been cancelled, ending after 23 seasons.

This week, I was honored to publish an op-ed by one of Life Below Zero’s story producers. (FYI, here’s what story producers do.)

Jenna Monroe wrote about how NatGeo failed Indigenous people yet again:

This isn’t simply about the cancellation of a show, this is about canceling us. Since 2013, we have held space to share our stories, our traditions, our values, our culture, with viewers around the world. That voice has been silenced. Yes, there will continue to be documentaries here and there, but it isn’t the same. And few cancellations cancel an entire people from an entire network.

I hope you'll read the full essay.

---

🧙 News and a review

Andrew Zimmern revealed:

• What Bizarre Foods was actually about (hint: not “a fat white guy that went around the world and ate bugs”)

Food Network gave us shocking Worst Cooks in America news:

• Anne Burrell is out, these reality TV heroes and villains are in

I reviewed the newest baking competition:

• Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking

---

🪳 Recaps

Survivor 47:

• Episode 9: Despite ‘nightmare fuel’ creating a ‘shitshow,’ a strategist succeeds
• I chatted briefly about this season with Laura Bradley in her newsletter.

The Summit:

• Episode 7: Did The Summit’s players crush the cockroach or stick to slow climbers?
• Coming later today: An interview with The Summit’s self-described villain! 🦹
• all my Summit recaps

---

🔪 True crime

• Review: Can Hulu’s Say Nothing possibly improve on the book?
• Recommendations: True-crime books and listens, including mommy-bloggers and murder ballads

True crime news from Sarah D. Bunting:

• Great first-person longread on Curbed by Suzanne Seggerman, "My Monster Tenant." Han Lo and his fake architect c.v. rented Seggerman's apartment...and then started demolishing it, for no apparent reason.
• I can't remember if we posted about it when it first dropped, but TMZ had a piece last year on the long, strange journey of the front door at 10050 Cielo Drive. That's the address where Charles Manson's followers murdered Sharon Tate and others in August of 1969; the rest of the building was razed years ago (and the address isn't the same either). I definitely didn't remember that Trent Reznor had so much crossover with the property and some of its most notorious hardware.
• Forensic genealogists at Ramapo College in New Jersey helped close a 50-year-old cold case. Mary K. Schlais was hitchhiking from Minneapolis to Chicago to see an art show in February of 1974, but never got there; her body was found in Wisconsin. An 84-year-old Minnesotan was arrested and charged with Schlais's murder last week.
• "How Hard Is It To Sell A 'Murder House'? It Depends." Thanks for that helpful headline, HuffPo! ...The article is clickbait (which worked on me, ngl!) trying to capitalize on recent headlines and serieses about Erik and Lyle Menendez, by talking about the sale earlier this year of the "stigmatized" Beverly Hills property where the Menendez brothers killed their parents. But it goes on to talk about half a dozen other, similar properties and how they tackled the stigma.

---

🗓️ Reality TV premieres

This week’s new and returning reality shows include the return of Christina in the Country, Moonshiners, The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd, and the endless digging of The Curse of Oak Island, plus Luke Bryan’s It’s All Country and Nova’s Building Stuff.

Documentaries premiering include Paramount+’s Larger Than Life: Reign of the Boybands, which looks at the history from The Beatles to K-Pop groups; NatGeo’s look at the Stanford Prison Experiment; and American Experience’s exploration of the only coup in American history.

---

💬 Comments of the week

On this story, Sandra wrote:

First Alaskans was a great show! It showed the actual struggle of being a native American struggling to preserve their culture in today’s world. I found it fascinating and real. Can’t believe Disney/Nat’l Geographic did not know what a gem they had

On this Survivor recap, Lauren wrote,

Re: Jeff’s incessant narrative. I’ve been trying to figure out why it doesn’t bother me so much and then it hit me. I watch a lot of football and it’s just like all the play-by-play and color commentators – I tune them out!

---

🗞️ Reality TV news and reads

• JT Thomas quit Bravo's Southern Charm, he announced on Instagram. He was on season nine and the upcoming season 10. He wrote "I have resigned frm Southern Charm. Yesterday I informed Bravo that I will not be participating in the 2-3 remaining green room interviews ... I've done about ~9 thus far leading up to today and that I no longer wish to participate in any ways moving forward with the TV show."

• Amazon is killing its ad-supported free streaming service Freevee, home of shows such as Judge Judy's Judy Justice and the scripted/unscripted Jury Duty.

  They'll be moved to Amazon's newly ad-supported, not-free streaming service Prime Video, Deadline reports, where you'll still be able to watch them for free even if you don't pay Jeff Bezos more money.

• Six in-depth stories to give you a break from doomscrolling and some insight into various aspects of reality TV and the industry:

  1. Heather Gay says ‘Housewives’ rescued her. And she’s got the receipts to prove it, L.A. Times. Meredith Blake profiles the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City cast member and explores why Heather considers it "the most important work I’ve ever done."
  2. She Starred in ‘Teen Mom 2.’ Now She Is Building a Book Empire, Wall Street Journal. A profile of Kailyn Lowry, whose podcast and social media has made her one of the book "industry’s elite influencers."
  3. Adam Savage has moved on from 'MythBusters' but will never quit San Francisco, SFGate. Drew Magary's talks to the MythBusters about what he's doing now—which is not cable TV, but his series Tested. “YouTube is so much better than working in television," Savage said. "Television is horrendous. People think that I have residuals from ‘MythBusters.’ But basic cable, there’s no residuals. You get paid for doing what you’re doing and then not again.”
  4. What I Saw Inside the Love Is Blind Control Room, Vulture. Kathryn VanArendonk takes us behind the scenes of the Netflix show, where producers watch what's happening in the pods—including an unaired scene in which Hannah Jiles confronted Jason Drecchio on behalf of many of the women.
  5. The Menendez Brothers, Privilege, And The Issue With True Crime And Celebrity Advocacy, HuffPost. Candice Frederick writes about  Lyle and Erik Menendez's Netflix series and their forthcoming appeal, and considers "the effect celebrity and stan cultures have on the justice system"—and " whether the content and quality of a true crime narrative actually matter."
  6. And the Streamers Fiddled while Hollywood Burned, Los Angeles Magazine. Patrick Caligiuri writes about how Hollywood screwed itself, and what happens now if "we unleash the world's greatest storytellers to create without restrictions."

---

🤩 I recommend

• Face Off, because new seasons are now on Netflix 🎉
• The new Harry Potter competition, mostly for the clever bakes
• Reading Jenna's essay

Thanks for joining me this week, and I hope you can find some great reality TV to watch and discuss in the week ahead. Take care!

best,
Andy

---

🌄 This is issue 397 of reality blurred’s weekly newsletter, first sent on 15 November 2024, and this Transgender Awareness Week, it celebrates all people who live their authentic selves—and appreciates the help Trans Lifeline offers people through its work